List z Ameryki - JMJT

To the Teachers, Administrators, Parents and Students of Republic of Norwid School,

Hello! My name is Lucy Langdon. I am a fellow Catholic from the state of Nebraska, in America. A few months ago I began an exciting correspondence with your religion teacher, Jozef Kapaon, through the grace of a seemingly chance encounter on Face Book, we became friends. Before I met Professor Kapaon, I knew a little about your nation. I already loved Poland for all your country has given the world. Jasna Gora Monastery; Blessed JP II, and Saints Maximillian Kolbe and Faustina Kowalska. ( Not to mention Lech Walesa! ) I have read a bit about the homeland of my greatest hero of the last century, Blessed John Paul II. So when I began to exchange information with Professor Kapaon, it was as if a person from a book stepped off the page and began to talk to me.

At the same time, I discovered that our Catholic Church is truly universal, and that we therefore have access to an immeasurable treasure in our Christian fraternity. All we have to do is extend a hand and say “Hello.” And by virtue of the fact that we are members of the mystical body of Christ, we have the joyful opportunity to find Him in each other.

I will tell you a little about the Parish I live in. Our Church and school are named St. Theresa's, after St. Therese of Lisieux. Our Church is the one Church in the Diocese that observes Divine Mercy Sunday the way Bl. John Paul II asked that it be. (Divine Mercy is a very big deal around here.) Our Diocese is known, nationwide, for being the extremely conservative diocese, and likewise, our parish is considered old-fashioned. Locally, that is considered a very good thing. We have a very healthy number of vocations to the Priesthood.

We are as different from the mainstream of American culture as one could be! We are called the Catholic Ghetto because many of the houses in our neighborhood have Mary statues in the front-yard. Our school is poorly funded but has a high rate of parental involvement. We have a teaching order of nuns to help prepare our children to receive the sacraments. Many of the families that attend the school and church are quite large by American standards - 7, 8, 9 kids - this is not unusual in the Catholic Ghetto! The best part of our parish is that the brightest and the most hopeful of the "JP II generation" have chosen this parish to live in, so there are many new and growing families crowding the pews. The greatest challenge around here is to survive financially while allowing (mostly) the moms to stay home for as long as possible, to care for their families. Our school has not raised tuition since the 1980's, which helps a lot. I can honestly tell you most of us live as if our treasure truly were in Heaven. America and our neighborhood are very different entities.

I have been looking forward to sharing this unbelievable gift of finding friends in Christ since Jozef and I began exchanging stories of the communities we live in. It is my hope that our Fifth Graders, who are preparing for Confirmation this school year, will learn as much as they teach, by becoming pen-pals with the children of your school. We here at St Theresa's are excited to know a community of learners who are bold enough to frame their school along the exalted ideals of a poet!I am just a homemaker, wife, and mother of 6 children who are between the ages of 2 and 15. But Christ and His Mother are the center of our home and community, and to me that means we must attempt to do anything God asks us to. He has asked us to love one another as He has loved us. We try and fail and try again, every day.Perhaps, more achievably, the magisterium of the Catholic Church has extended this commandment to include our friends in other countries.Or, to quote a Vatican II document, I think becoming pen-pals can serve the greater purpose:" Since, in virtue of her mission received from God, the Church preaches the Gospel to all men and dispenses the treasures of grace, she contributes to the ensuring of peace everywhere on earth and to the placing of the fraternal exchange between men on solid ground by imparting knowledge of the divine and natural law. Therefore, to encourage and stimulate cooperation among men, the Church must be clearly present in the midst of the community of nations both through her official channels and through the full and sincere collaboration of all Christians—a collaboration motivated solely by the desire to be of service to all." (Gaudium et spec, paragraph 89)

With that having been said; Republic of Norwid! We at St. Theresa's Parish, specifically the Fifth grade class, embark hopefully on the adventure of beginning a full and sincere collaboration so that the Church may be made clearly present in the community of nations with you. May the Holy Spirit be ever present in our shared endeavor.God Bless, and - as we put at the top of our school assignments -In Jesus, Mary and Joseph we trust!Lucy Langdon